Staple Carbohydrate: Rice
Other Staple Ingredients: meat, sea food, vegetables.
Common Ingredients: chili, coconut milk, garlic, limes, peanuts, fish sauce, shrimp paste
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If you have food allergies, the easy thing about Thailand is that they cook their food in the traditional way, so you can usually work out what is safe and count on it to use the same ingredients at different food vendors.
The challenge about Thailand is that it is a very difficult country to communicate in. Although many Thais in touristed areas appear to have good English, some have only just enough to take your order, although they appear to understand more than they really do. Asking exactly what is in the food, and attempting to order a special meal is unlikely to succeed (fancy tourist resorts are probably an exception). In areas with few or no tourists, you will have to learn at least some Thai to find out what is and is not in the food. They will think you highly odd for asking, but they think all foreigners are odd – they are likely to be tolerant.
Easy to Avoid Allergenic Foods in Thailand
- Wheat – (as long as you are not too sensitive). Soy sauce is a common ingredient, and it does have a tiny amount of wheat in it. Other sauces may also be a problem. Watch out for yellow noodles. White rice noodles are available everywhere. Often they are right next to each other in the food stall, so watch out for stray yellow noodles in with your rice noodles.
- Milk – not used in traditional Thai cooking
- Yeast
- Corn
- Oats
Hard to Avoid Allergenic Foods in Thailand
Notes
- Thais love meat! Strict vegetarians will have very limited choices, although it is possible to get many dishes with almost no meat
- The cuisine is very regional in Thailand. Some dishes are available throughout the country, others only in certain provinces.
Note that fish sauce is used in some Thai cooking, and may contain wheat. This may be more common in Thai restaurants located in Western countries than in Thailand itself, and may depend on the region. This area needs more research. If you can add further information, please leave a comment. Thanks to Sea for pointing out the possibility of wheat in some brands of fish sauce (Thai Food, dangers of).
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Different view about “easy to avoid allergenic food” in Thailand
I feel like I need to post this because having inaccurate info about food allergy in Thailand might make someone really sick from having food allergic reaction.
“Milk” though may or may not be used 100 years ago in Thai cooking. It is now used in many Thai and Chinese recipes to marinade meat as meat tenderizer. Do you think coconut milk is milk-free? You might need to ask if coconut milk is freshly made, from a can or powder. I found a powdered coconut milk contains casein (milk protein).
“Wheat” is extremely hard to avoid in Thai food. Most Thai cooking use fish sauce, thin soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce. Fish sauce shouldn’t have wheat. However all other sauces do contain wheat even though the label in English might not say so. I discover this myself on my thin soy sauce bottle, that Thai label says it contains wheat, but English label doesn’t say so! The ‘white rice noodles’ that you mention are available everywhere – what kind? The fresh rice noodle, wide noodle, contains either wheat or modified food starch. The thin thread rice noodle (at least the ones I bought in the US) does not contain wheat. If anyone is dealing with egg allergy, the yellow noodles most likely contain egg.
Well, things change …
Thanks for your information.
From what I could see in Thailand, the coconut milk is fresh. Real coconut milk has no milk in it, just coconut. Powdered coconut is another matter and well worth looking in to, thanks for that tip.
You have a point about the fish and soy sauce. I found that it did not bother me, but you are right to point it out as it is a big problem for celiacs.
When you talk about fresh white noodles – do you mean in the US or in Thailand? I certainly did not have a problem with the white noodles in Thailand. This is worth more investigation.
You are right about the yellow noodles containing egg. I do believe they are called “egg noodles”, although the Thais may call them something else.
Are there any Thai foods
Are there any Thai foods that are reliably peanut free? I know to avoid any sauces, but what about rice? Are nuts always added into it? Any suggestions about foods to eat?
Nut allergy in Thailand
If you are traveling to Thailand, you will have to be very careful about peanuts.
Plain rice should be just fine.
The problem with ordering food in Thailand, depending on where you order it from, is the communication barrier – both language and culture.
I don’t have any solid information you can rely on to keep you safe from peanuts so I can’t give you any specific advice.
I can say that peanuts are very common, and most restaurants have containers on the tables with ground peanuts to add as you like. Obviously you don’t like, I’m just pointing out that it’s as common as salt and sugar in Thailand.
Best of luck!
Peanut allergy – more info
I came upon your question about peanuts while looking for some info for my daughter, who has a peanut allergy.
Here’s some more information about Thailand that may help you avoid any reactions.
Besides the peanuts, the use of peanut oil for frying is also very common.
Make sure that you ask about the oil used in all dishes, because the waiter may not make the association.
Hope this helps.
Thailand
Hello,
I have quite a lot of allergies and I was wondering how much of a bad idea could going to Thailand be.
Here are my allergies:
– Nuts, peanuts
– Sesame seeds
– Fish
– Kiwis
– Milk products
Thank you.
Difficult …
Hi Boulette,
Thais use peanuts and fish sauce a lot.
I think sesame will be easy to avoid, but not 100% sure.
Milk won’t be a problem. Kiwis will also be easy to avoid.
If you’re going to a resourt, you might have better luck. Out on the street, it can be very hard to communicate food allergies. There is a language and cultural gap, along with the usual lack of awareness of allergies that you might find almost anywhere.
It really depends how serious your allergies are.